Shopping List
Lisa Brideau, a planner at the City of Vancouver, sends along a chart she culled from a Canada Line study. It shows the number of people who came by various modes of transportation to Downtown, Cambie Street and No. 3 Road in Richmond:
What jumps out for me is the astonishingly low number of people in Downtown Vancouver who arrive by car – only 15 percent.
As Lisa notes:
So, if anyone wonders how important parking should be to merchants (versus, perhaps, a nice pedestrian realm, or improved transit facilities), this should be of interest: for Downtown Vancouver 87% of people arrived by walking/transit/bike. For Cambie Village, 76% arrived by walking/transit/bike.
She also picks up an important consideration when looking at the numbers for No.3 Road:
Note that the stats for No 3 road should probably be read with a grain of salt since they interviewed people on the sidewalk and the only people that would be using the sidewalk would be people taking transit – anyone driving wouldn’t leave the parking lot.
Still, it’s likely that after the Canada Line opens, the ratio should shift somewhat. I’d guess that more people in South Vancouver will begin to consider Richmond a more realistic option for shopping than, say, Metrotown or even Downtown.
As for Cambie, that will be the street to watch. Only 15 percent arrive by transit at the moment. Any guesses on what it will be when the Canada Line opens? (Rumour alert: I hear the line might open considerably ahead of the November start-up date if current progress continues.)
If that is the case, and I have no reason to doubt, why are so many traffic lights (let’s just start with Georgia and Seymour) wired to penalize pedestrians, for the sake of people who drive?
Traffic planning seems to come from the same school as transit management – the traffic planners and transit officials never walk, don’t take transit, never have to wait while some lout from West Van gets the advance left. And, simultaneously, some ever-so-edgy resident of East Van (or, more likely, the ‘burbs) gets to turn right.
Yes; you know ‘alternatives’ matter, when pedestrians are standing in the rain. And the automobile commuter is not only warm, and dry, but deified by planners.
Well, the City of Vancouver REMOVED a delayed walk at Seymour and Smithe (that formerly held back pedestrians on the west sidewalk) because it was deemed unnecessary.
The primary reason is to prevent gridlock and back-ups of traffic across intersections as far as a block away. Cars stuck in traffic idling spew out more than cars that are moving – and cars that are stuck gridlocked in traffic present dangerous obstacles for pedestrains to walk around when crossing.
An advance right turn arrow was installed westbound on Robson at Seymour because transit buses were backed up down the block trying to make the right hand turn.
Maybe that block on Seymour (which has an HOV 98 B-Line route on it) is a transit priority area and the arrows assist in clearing traffic.
Ron,
I respect your reply, but you suggest that it is far superior to have pedestrians ‘backed-up’ than car drivers. So traffic is “backed up,” the car drivers are warm and dry – a not significant consideration in Vancouver.
And, rather than make a mess here, we (and please note the ‘we’ there) could continue out little sandbox fight via email if you like, just lower-case everything, no space, and add gmail
Ron, cars moving at over 35kph are far more likely to kill pedestrians than cars that are stuck in gridlock. Congestion also discourages people from driving which reduces pollution far more than decreasing idling.
Note to pedestrians: Please don’t bother Ron while he’s busy defending the logic of Gordon Campbell and his wacky ideas for transportation in the region.
Reduce GHGs by expanding the highways… hmmm….
“Ron, cars moving at over 35kph are far more likely to kill pedestrians than cars that are stuck in gridlock. Congestion also discourages people from driving which reduces pollution far more than decreasing idling.”
One word. Wow.
My daily commute involves a walk from Waterfront Station to Georgia and Hamilton. I get to see lots of bad driving, lots of pedestrian stupidity, and plenty of bicyclist arrogance. Yesterday, crossing Seymour on the north side of Hastings I was nearly flattened by a left turning car that had been eastbound on Hastings, and seconds later, nearly caught at the other side of the intersection by a right-turning car that had been westbound on Hastings. I had the walk sign in my favour at both ends. I should have taken down both plate numbers and reported them to the ICBC fink line but I was too busy swearing to no great effect.
I am still pleased with myself though for an episode some years ago where I used my attache case to smash the left rear tail light of a pickup truck that was going though the intersection at Seymour and Cordova. It felt really good seeing the shards of red plastic falling onto the pavement next to my shoe.
I have been shocked and angered many times by unbelievably arrogant cyclists peddling on crowded sidewalks, or racing full-tilt through a cross walk filled with pedestrians. Saying something like “Watch where you’re going” is likely to provoke a string of profanities and highly credible threats of violence. These people really believe they are a special breed with special entitlements.
At the same time, I have to wonder about ignorant pedestrians who figure that while the red and green lights must be respected by motorists, they are immune from the walk and don’t walk signals. I will never forget the sight I saw about six or seven years ago at the corner of Hastings and Richards. The legs of a dead woman were peering out from underneath a bus. As it happens, she lived a few blocks from my place. The bus driver was absolved because the victim simply walked into his path as he was turning left onto Hastings from Richards. It was thought she was wearing headphones and not paying sufficient attention.
Ignorant and dangerous behaviour, encouraged by ignorant and dangerous rhetoric, can be deadly.
I walk to work every day from Yaletown to the CBD and often take Georgia Steet – because the timing of the traffic signals is perfectly timed for pedestrians as well as cars. Once you start walking along Georgia Street – you don’t ever hit a red light – two traffic light cahanges occur over the period it takes a pedestrian to walk one block (contrast that to walking along Robson where the lights are not timed, neither for cars nor pedestrians).
i.e. cars and pedestrians (and even cyclsist) can co-exist.
Remember the basic motor vehicle law – pedestrians have the right of way when in a crosswalk.
An advanced turn signal for cars is an exception to the general rule – I don’t think that rules should be so inflexible as to never have exceptions. If that were the case you’d see jaywalkers getting tickets left right and centre (like they enforce against jaywalkers crossing LRT tracks).
If all issues become so polarized as A against B against C – with each of A, B and C demanding that they take top priority at all times – how do you expect anything to ever get done?
BTW – back on topic – the numbers for Cambie should probably also be taken with a grain of salt. If cars represent only 25% of shoppers on Cambie, I’m not sure if you would see the levels of business losses claimed by the businesses on Cambie. That suggests that the number of customers frequenting businesses on Cambie by car is actually higher than 25%. For example, many of the restaurants along the stretch probably have customers who drive there as a destination, but that customer traffic is time-of-day dependent (primarily evenings). If the survey was not taken during that time period, the results could be skewed. i.e. if you surveyed Yaletown during the day versus at night, you’d probably get different results.